Post-Democracy and Democratic Backsliding: Political Dynamics and Discourses in Bulgarian Politics

• In Event: Rethinking Bulgarian Transitions: Literary, Anthropological, and Political Discourses of Memory

Abstract

The current paper provides an original conceptualization of the Bulgarian transition in attempt to explain the democratic backsliding that we witness in recent years. We base our analysis upon Krasteva’s concept of transition from post-communism to post-democracy which evolves in three stages that represent unique transformations (Krasteva 2019; Krasteva and Todorov 2020). The first democratic transformation started as “the end of history” (Fukuyama 1992) and the triumph of liberal democracy over communist regimes, with the former dominating the grand narrative of post-communist transformation. The national-populist transformation comes second after the start of the post-communist transition and the first to reverse the direction of democratic transformation. Post-democracy (Krasteva 2019, 2023c, Krasteva and Todorov 2020) is the latest wave of post-communist transformations. Post-democracy, as described by Colin Crouch (2004) is understood as a regime in which democratic institutions do exist, but they are empty shells stripped of their role of serving the public interest, subordinated to private interests instead. We argue that Bulgaria today finds itself in a state of post-democracy, characterized by a shift from policies to politics, from crisis management to crisis creation, from institutions to leadership, from ad hoc crisis to permanent crisis (Krasteva 2020). To illustrate this shift, we trace political dynamics and discourses in the last four years during which Bulgaria has been in continuous political turmoil and instability. Particular focus is given to the discourses of new parties. From a theoretical perspective, new parties representing an emerging and growing field in political science due to the growing number of countries whose party systems are experiencing increased fragmentation and a growing number of newcomers. From the voter perspective, support for new parties is due to a growing dissatisfaction with mainstream parties and a growing distrust in political elites. From an empirical perspective, Bulgaria ranks among the top ten countries in Europe for the number of new parties, the results of which are seen in growing party system fragmentation, inability to form governing coalitions, and hence continued political instability and democratic backsliding.

Authors

• Emilia Alexandrova Zankina, Temple U

• Anna Krasteva, New Bulgarian U (Bulgaria)